Gospel of Thomas - coda 19

Gospel of Thomas, coda 19.

Jesus said, "Congratulations to the one who came into being before coming into being.  If you become my disciples and pay attention to my sayings, these stones will serve you.  For there are five trees in Paradise for you; they do not change, summer or winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death."

Stevan Davies explains that Thomas has as its background the two creation stories in Genesis.  The first creation story spans Genesis 1:1-2:3.  The second creation story begins at 2:4 and continues indefinitely.   The first creation is perfect.  God declares it good seven times.  The first creation includes the origin of light and primordial humanity made in the image of God.  The second creation starts as if the first creation story never took place.  In this story man is made out of dirt and woman out of the man’s rib.

The first creation is not superseded by the second.  Rather, it continues coexistent with the second.  The first creation is perfect and the primordial human perfect, unmarred by the “Fall” or “Original Sin.”  The first human is a spiritual creation not a physical one, the second is a physical condition.  So, any human being is both a spiritual being and a physical being.

Thomas spirituality is a path of return of human beings to their original condition from the first creation.  This initial condition continues to exist in reality, although the second condition is what people ordinarily experience as real.  The first hidden creation is the “Kingdom of God.”  The human condition of any person can be that of the original image of God or that of Adam of the second condition.  One can identify with Spirit or body and mind.  When identified with the first creation one exists as one who exists before coming into being in the manner of the image of God which existed before the form of Adam came into being.  Both the first, and second creation, coexist, but the later and inferior physical reality masks the former and perfect primordial form.

The first creation, the Kingdom of God is already present on the earth.  It always has been and always will be.  When someone is a disciple of Jesus and identifies himself as the self made in the first creation, everything that is on earth serves that disciple.  That’s what it means that, “the very stones” of the earth will serve those who know their true nature and the true nature of the world.  One with such knowledge of his nature will be a master of his own reality.

The five trees in paradise are evergreen.  They are eternal.  They do not change season to season.  These are trees of knowledge.  To know these trees is to know one’s original nature or condition, the condition prior to the second creation.  One who knows this doesn’t die because the original spiritual creation and human is eternal.